Parent Conference Week

BE KIND

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

One more reminder that tomorrow is Parent/Teacher Conference Day. Teachers have been preparing all week for these meetings to let you know how your child is doing in this first stretch of the 2015-16 school year.

I heard that the Halloween "Spooktacular" was a big success! Many students were still talking about it on Monday. We are fortunate to have a PTA that organizes fun, family friendly events that allow the children to have these social opportunities outside of the school day.

Thank you Exeter Rescue for another great Fire Safety demonstration for Grade 1! 

Last week we were able to get outside and use chalk to draw images that focus on being kind, respectful and accepting of each other. There are two examples on the top of this message today. While the month of October is "Anti-Bullying Month", we address this theme all year long with daily reminders about expected and unexpected behavior. Students in Grades 1 and 2  were very enthusiastic about this activity and hopefully, we will still have the weather to do this with Kindergarten soon!

We are always willing to take gently used books off of your hands for our READ program or for our front basket which is a source of great joy for children who have to wait in the office and for newly enrolled students. Simply label the donations "OFFICE" and we will make sure these books get into the hands of someone that is in need.

Thank you for sending in the pumpkins for our pumpkin parade! They will look beautiful in front of our school on Halloween night. We always get so many compliments from people who notice this unexpected display of happiness!

Have a safe and happy Halloween, enjoy the excitement as you watch your trick-or-treater go door to door! Make sure they have a flashlight or a glow stick and be careful.

Enjoy!
Melissa Marino

October Updates from Wawaloam

Dear Wawaloam Community,

Sometimes it feels as though every time we turn on the news or read the paper there is a story about violence and hatred. The reality is that it is more important than ever to teach our young learners about acceptance and diversity.  Young students are so eager to learn and soak in most of what is presented to them.

We have the power to give them opportunities time and time again to celebrate and discuss differences and how these make us special and unique.  Our art teachers are amazing and I told you about what they were working on a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would only be fair to share the finished product. What is important to think about when you look at this is that it is all of these projects on display together that really add to the beauty and purpose.

We are also given the chance every day to make our students exercise the Growth Mindset and instill in them a belief that if they put their minds to it they can improve and learn more about anything! This week in many Grade 2 classrooms students are building towers as part of the SOLIDS and LIQUIDS science kit! What I noticed in one of the classrooms is that the teacher continually referred to the students as "Engineers" while they were working to build the tallest tower possible using the materials they were provided with. There is no doubt that if we continue to call students Readers and Writers and Artists and Engineers and Mathematicians we will help to develop these qualities and provide them with the confidence building they need to not be afraid to try when tasks are challenging! 

Science Learning

Look at this tower! 

Book Fair and Halloween Spooktacular

The Scholastic Book Fair for all grades runs

Monday, October 19th- Friday, October 23^rd

during your child’s Library special.

Your child will be able to shop for books with their class.

Most books range from $5 to $8.  Please send your child

with cash or check payable to EWG-PTA.

Family Night is Friday, October 23^rd

In the Metcalf Cafeteria from 6:00-8:00pm.

Information about event at High School right before Spooktacular! 

EWG's chapter of National Art Honor Society presents the school's 10th annual Spooktacular!October 23rd from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, come on down to the Senior High for a fun night including a Fortune Teller, Musical Chairs, and Face Painting! There will be a large exhibit showing wonderful artwork done by high school students so bring quarters to vote for your favorite one. Other competitions will include a pumpkin pie bake off, a sculpture contest, and a costume contest! Show up in your favorite costume and get the chance to win best Sci-Fi costume, funniest costume, best kid costume, and so many more! We hope to see you there enjoying the live music, food, and drinks! 

Paint Night

Be on the lookout for Proud Painter Night coming up on November 6! You could paint this:

Read Program Kick-Off (Grades 1 and 2) 

Grade 1 and Grade 2 Families: Today you will find information about the READ program which is our way of motivating our students to read as much as possible. I would like to extend a big thank you to Mrs. Blake for a great Grade 1 and 2 assembly today. We talked about cozy reading spots, how students could earn "links" and took a readers oath! Most important is the question we will be trying to find an answer to this year: How many books will we need to read to earn enough links to go around our entire school?? Students will be earning 1 link for every 10 books they read! We are so excited!! 

Helping your child with Concepts About Print (Kindergarten)

Kindergarten families, look for a special bookmark in your child's folder that will be a great resource at home to supporting your early reader. If you could use this as a guide over and over again, it will make a big difference in the progress you will see! 

Pumpkin Parade!

Look for information about this event coming home soon!

Reminder : Parent Conferences October 30th

Have a wonderful weekend, sounds like we will need to pull out the fleece jackets! 

Melissa Marino

WALKATHON

Dear Wawaloam School Community, 

As you may have heard, the walkathon was a great time for everyone! We appreciate the efforts on behalf of our PTA volunteers for all of the time that went into this memorable, fun, fitness promotion that will benefit EVERYONE! 

Please see the following message from Jenn Spira, our PTA president:

Our walkathon events are over, but the walkathon fundraiser continues!  Please continue to share our GoFundMe address with your family and friends (gofundme.com/EWGSCHOOLS), and encourage them to mail donations and sneaker messages to our schools. We will continue to post the sneakers outside every classroom as they arrive throughout the month, and plan to announce our final fundraising total in late October or early November. 
 
Thanks to all of the families that participated, and to all of the volunteers, teachers and administrators who contributed to the walkathons this week to help us pull them off. A great team effort that shows the best of EWG!

Picture day has come and gone, the children were adorable and very patient when there was an issue with one of the cameras. We ended up extending recess time to make sure that everyone could get pictures taken BEFORE swinging, running, sliding and digging. 

Thank you all for sending in wipes that are safe for handwashing to our Art teachers! We really appreciate this support. This will be a big time-saver and will result in extra time for ART in art class. 

As a result of the extended recess and the Professional Development Day, the only grade that I met with this week was Kindergarten. I am always curious if they can communicate the time I spend with them to you at home. 

This week I read, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. I told them that I call this book "an oldie but goodie" because it is a book you can read over and over again and enjoy the story each time (I actually got this phrase from my daughter who is in Grade 1).  

I picked this book to remind them to always believe in themselves and they also picked up on all of the other trains who were not willing to help, children actually said out loud, "that's not nice!"  These are the moments that allow us to connect the events in a story to how they can make a difference in school or at home. I am including a link to the reading of this book in case you want to share the story together at home. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMlcoTnLyvU

Reminder that there is no school on Monday, October 12- Columbus Day. There are lots of Fall Festivals happening out there! Have a fun long weekend with your family!

Melissa Marino

Lots of Information About Next Week at Wawaloam School

Greetings Wawaloam School Community,

This weekend will be good for planning ahead for all of the events scheduled for the upcoming week, given that the predication for wind and rain will most likely keep us close to home.

The first event next week is Picture Day! This is scheduled to take place in the morning on Wednesday, October 7th. The flyers for Picture Day came home this week and students should have these with them on Wednesday. It appears that on these envelopes there is a method for doing this online as well if you are interested in checking that out.

We are excited about our upcoming PTA Walkathon this THURSDAY, October 8th! The letters have been sent out and the schedule has been distributed. We are fortunate to have the support of maintenance who will be helping us to design a track on our upper field. We are hopeful that the weather will cooperate with us but certain that we will have a great time!


On Thursday, please consider wearing yellow and black or any school shirt that you might have for the Walk-a-thon! We want to see your school spirit on this day! 

A reminder that there is NO SCHOOL THIS FRIDAY, October 9th. This is a Professional Development Day for Elementary Teachers. 

This week I read the book, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubenstein. The children loved this book and the message was an important one: Learn from your mistakes, let go, laugh and enjoy the ride! We sure laughed together when the main character's hamster turned her perfect juggling act into a disaster, in the end teaching a valuable lesson that it is acceptable to make mistakes.

Recently at a table with a group of Wawaloam teachers, I was listening intently to a conversation that hit home for me. The focus was on the learning that can take place in the car, more specifically that the car is a GREAT place to learn! Often, this is a place where children are provided with distractions to help them pass the time. These distractions can take away from some of the key learning and creativity that could be taking place. We were in agreement in regard to our own children that we try to come up with multiple ways to make sure our children "are not bored".

When children have to wait or will be required to be patient, we have become a society that will simply provide them with a hand-held device,  an I-Pads and even our own phones. I am not offering suggestions or even an opinion here, just providing you with a chance to take some time to reflect on this new norm. We agreed that it is not only important, but it is also a life skill to learn how to encounter and manage unstructured time.

Thank you so much to the teachers who joined me last night at the PTA meeting, I know that our families appreciated having you all there!

Have a great weekend!
Melissa Marino

Please take a moment to read the Superintendent's Blog for this week :)

http://erinakes.blogspot.com/